The signs clearly say, as so many rabbis and experts have confirmed, that we are living in prophetic times preceding the Messiah.

2018 saw a host of "End of Days" events and predictions actualized. In January, snow fell on the Sahara—the world's hottest desert—paralleling prophecies of Isaiah. In May, President Trump moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, many likening the American leader to Cyrus, the Persian king who ended the Babylonian exile and paved the way for the second temple in Jerusalem. In September, an entirely red female calf was born (which later died, though there are two more candidates that will be checked in the coming week), the prophesied tenth and final of its kind before the Messiah, enabling Israel to become ritually pure and reinstate the temple service. In November, nations gathered in Israel for an interfaith conference about the Temple Mount. Throughout the year, Jerusalem saw a spike in inbound-tourism, breaking all-time records of tourists, many Christian. We call it tourism, but prophets talked about it as biblical prophecy.

Indeed, many extraordinary events signal the miraculous times in which we are living. Breaking Israel News looks back on these prophetic moments and suggests five further prophecies that could be fulfilled in 2019.

5 Biblical Prophecies Fulfilled in 2018

"[The Lord] says: Build up, build up a highway! Clear a road! Remove all obstacles From the road of My people!" (Isa. 57:14, The Israel Bible).

In September, 2018, Yisrael Katz, Israel's transportation minister, announced the opening of the first stages of the new high-speed train to Jerusalem, saying, "we are connecting and strengthening our capital city of Jerusalem, and we are connecting to Jerusalem's history." One of its stops will bring people to the Western Wall from different locations of Jerusalem's capital. These developments in Jerusalem were prophesied by Isaiah, and this was surely a point of major fulfillment in 2018 as well as continued fulfillment into 2019. Additionally, such infrastructure improvements, including the new Ramon airport that is set to open in early 2019, will pave the way for future pilgrimages to Jerusalem during the annual feasts.

2. War of Gog and Magog in Iranian-Backed Syria

I will turn you around and put hooks in your jaws, and lead you out with all your army, horses, and horsemen, all of them clothed in splendor, a vast assembly, all of them with bucklers and shields, wielding swords. Among them shall be Persia, Nubia, and Put, everyone with shield and helmet (Ezek. 38:4-5).

Iran, with its modern-day incarnation of biblical Persia, is explicitly identified by the prophet Ezekiel as an end-of-days foe of Israel. In early 2018, Israel and Iran made direct military contact for the first time over Israeli airspace, an escalation of conflict in an already volatile region that brings the armies of various nations in close proximity to one another. Rabbis and experts, including Rabbi Pinchas Winston and Rabbi Yosef Berger, equated this confrontation to the prophesied war of Gog and Magog—the second part of a two-stage process for the returning of the divine presence to Israel—beginning in the north (with Russia, perhaps) and Iran.

As leaders wonder what to do about Iran's nuclear program (as well as Iranian support of Israel's terror-sponsoring neighbors of Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon), rabbinic authorities look to prophecy to find clear answers for a developing situation that Winston describes as "about to get biblical." In addition to its nuclear program that promises to wipe Israel off the map, Iran has already established military bases in war-torn Syria, where a civil war has resulted in approximately 600,000 killings, more than 5.6 million fleeing and 6 million displaced internally.

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"These were the years of the life of Ishmael: one hundred and thirty-seven years; then he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his kin" (Gen. 25:18).

The year 2018 began with a lunar eclipse signaling "a harsh period for B'nei Ishmael (sons of Ishmael, i.e., the Arab nations), which is necessary for the beginning of Moshiach (Messiah)," Rabbi Berger, the rabbi of King David's Tomb on Mount Zion, told Breaking Israel News. In Genesis, it is told that when Ishmael falls, it will be the end of days, and the Son of David (the Messiah) will flourish and the Temple Mount will change from its current state into its prophetic role as a "house of prayer for all nations." When one views the struggle over Temple Mount sovereignty as a zero-sum game between B'nei Ishmael and B'nei Yitzhak, one could conclude that this year's increase of Jewish presence on the Temple Mount signals the end of Ishmael's reign. Indeed, in 2018, more Jews ascended the Temple Mount than ever before since the Jewish Temple stood, with 28,500 Jews ascending in the last Jewish calendar year. As this occurs, we have seen various strange phenomena on the Temple Mount—perhaps signaling the prophesied shift that will occur in Jerusalem pre-Messiah—such as an eerie mist, sinkholes and snakes.

The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem opened on May 14, 2018, after U.S. President Donald Trump declared Jerusalem as Israel's capital in late 2017. Rabbi Mendel Kessin, a rabbi who interprets modern events from a Torah perspective, maintained that this decision is bringing the world closer to the Messiah, calling it the "Tikkun (fixing) of Esau," describing how Esau (embodied in part by Donald Trump's paradigm shift) will be restored by helping Israel. Others have paralleled Donald Trump to Cyrus, the Persian king who ended the Babylonian exile and paved the way for the second temple in Jerusalem, even minting a Trump/Cyrus replica of the silver half-shekel biblically mandated to be donated in the temple.

So Esau went unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives that he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Avraham's son, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife (Gen. 28:9).

Just as soon as U.S. President Trump moved the Embassy in 2018, Israel became the focus of condemnation on various fronts. The Arab world, Western media and even Christian leaders opposed the move. While unfortunate, this reaction is viewed as an essential step in the process of the Messiah according to prolific end-of-days author and educator Rabbi Pinchas Winston. In the end of days, those who are at war will come together as described by the Vilna Gaon (leading rabbi of the 18th century Elijah ben Solomon Zalman), namely, the Catholic Church and Ishmael (the Arab world), both of whom forged an alliance, despite their differences, to condemn Israel. Rabbi Winston explained that this unlikely union consisting of two opposing forces (known in the Bible as Esau and Ishmael) will be facilitated by the erev rav (mixed multitude), largely consisting of liberal, left-wing Jews. This is exactly what we witnessed in 2018, another prophecy fulfilled as rabbis maintain that the Messianic era is upon us.

Breaking Israel Newsoffers a fresh and biblical perspective on the latest news from Israel and the Middle East. Our bias is not liberal nor conservative—just biblical.

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